Silverknife - Technology and Making: Cloud Computing for Beginners, Part 1: Introduction

"Cloud Computing" is becoming one of the biggest buzzphrases on the Net, eclipsing the dreaded "Web 2.0" as a popular metaphor for the cutting edge in internet technology. But what does it really mean, and how can it benefit you?

Cloud computing is, in essence, just a step further in the development of worldwide computer networking. It's the process by which your data, and even your applications, are moved "online" (ie away from your desktop) into the "cloud", the mass of resources available to you on the internet.

Cloud computing has actually been possible since the development of the first modem. In fact, early networked computer systems were closer to cloud computing than our modern day desktop setup. Data and applications were stored and run centrally on huge mainframe computers, and users connected to them with a very simple "dumb terminal" which was too low-powered to run programs by itself, and merely took keyboard input from the user to the mainframe and brought back text to display on its screen. The terminal might be connected directly to the mainframe, or over a phone line using a modem.

Over time, desktop terminals became Personal Computers, capable of running their own programs, storing increasingly large quantities of data and in time becoming thousands of times more powerful than their room-filling mainframe predecessors. Mainframe computing became largely obsolete.

But now, as the internet has become ubiquitous, storage capacities in bytes-to-the-buck have increased exponentially and very high speed net connections have become widely available and affordable, the offsite/centralised approach to computing has become practical and interesting again under the name of Cloud Computing. Google, with their millions of highspeed servers and vast data storage facilities (and most of all the fact that they give most of their services away for free) have pushed the field forward dramatically.

In this series of articles I'll explain some of the practicalities of cloud computing as it stands in 2009, and give examples and how-tos of how you can use CC in your work and life. I'll address some of the concerns and limitations of the technology, and cover some of the exciting possibilities which will be opening up in the future.